BSC: Kerbal X - We have a winner!

[Xeldrak]

You have been added.

Ah, weekend at last - now I finally got some time to construct my own entry. After three days of sitting in lectures, constructing rockets in my head.

We allready have 30 entries - I'm amazed, how many people take part in this challenge

By now, there are ~23 hours left until the voting procedure starts!

[Spartwo]

I call it CTV.134 total.If you like to timewarp while parachuting(optional as rocket only landing is possible)this isn't for you(force rips the parachutes off)

http://www./download/29m7m8rq4nwr4ap/CSM.craft

Edited November 17, 2013 by Spartwo

[Kerolyov]

Here is my entry the Kerolyov X!

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Craft file can be downloaded from dropbox here

This is a vision of Kerbal X which specialises as an orbiter, although landing legs for Minmus landing could be added easily.

Orbiter stats:-

11.9 tons

2400 vacuum dV

Thrust of 0.5 Kerbin g at max fuel load

• Demonstrates a simple efficient design with plenty of dV to help out beginning Kerbal Mun pilots.
  
• Shows how 48-7S engine can be very efficient engine for smaller ships as it has a very good thrust to weight ratio and good ISP.
  
• Very stable launcher, with the single Skipper providing more than enough control.
  
• Has unmanned unit on the launcher so launcher can easily be de-orbited once orbiter is in circular Kerbin orbit.
  
• Demonstrates the use of asparagus design and use of aerospikes in atmosphere to increase efficiency.
  

Action groups:-

Abort - shuts down all engines and decouples command pod and deploys parachute (for use in case of launch emergencies such as crew realising they forgot snacks!)

Key 1 - toggles solar panels open/close

Edited November 17, 2013 by Kerolyov

[NeilC]

Presenting the Kerbal X2:

This craft has been designed to guide KSP newbies through their first trip to the Mun or Minmus.

It is the spiritual successor to the Kerbal X, much more capable but with the same style.

Special attention was given to the launch process. This craft isn't just capable of reaching orbit, it also teaches newbies how to do so easily and efficiently. No throttle control is needed, and the stages are sized to cue the pilot on when to begin gravity turn and when to coast to apoapsis.

Features:

- 164 parts, 190.6 tons on the pad

- Land 3 Kerbals on the Mun or Minmus and return them home safely

- Maintains the visual style and form factor of the original Kerbal X

- Craft is stable and easy to pilot

- No throttle control needed during launch.

- Launch process is visual and easy to describe to newbies

- Staging is logical, with each stage sized to its purpose:

---> gravity turn starts on 2nd booster separation

---> Core booster sized to burn out when ~75km apoapsis reached

- Noob-friendly: Plenty of extra delta-V for orbital maneuvers

- Lights for night landings

Building techniques Showcased:

- Asparagus staging

- Stable lander: short and wide design makes it hard to tip over

- Robust lander: Low mass and large strong legs let it absorb high impacts like a champ

- Logical stage division, with each section designed for a specific job

- Compact payload design:

---> radial mount points and tiny in-line decouplers used instead of large radial decouplers

---> Fuel routing allows re-use of the single LV-909 for both descent and ascent stages

- Proper engine selection:

---> Solid boosters for initial burst of speed

---> Asparagus boosters for sustained thrust through the atmosphere

---> Mainsail core booster for high TWR above 30km

---> Poodle for high-efficiency orbital maneuvers

Kerbal X2 .craft file:

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[Xeldrak]

]I present you my entry: The CROME - the ChemRock Orbital/Münar Explorer

Is a fully functional münar rocket. I tried to keep it a simple a possible while keeping some advanced goodies in the design, that can be understood, copies or emulated. So, let me explain some design decisions:

• I wanted to keep the aspargus-design, because it's a rather important technique in KSP. But I remember when I launched the Kerbal X as a noob, that everything happend too fast to grasp. So I went with a fourfold symetry and orange tanks. The tanks drain slowly, you can check that only two tanks are feeding all the engines, while the others stay full. This way a new player could hopefully understand the fuel-flow and the basic priciple of aspargus
  
• The engines on the Boosters are quad LV-T30 engines. I neglected this engine myself for a long time, but with the "new" adapters it has become a engine that can easily be assembled is is rather awesome. It has ~30% more thrust than a Skipper engine, while beeing more efficient. Also it introduces noobs to clustered engines in general.
  
• The lander uses radially attached LV-909, wich makes for are very compact design. I used this technique on my CRUEL lander aswell. It makes a nice, compact rocket that is less wobbly. Also the best way to attach nuclear engines in my opinion.
  
• The rocket has a rather generous battery but only solar panels that have to be toggled. Electricity is rather important, especially with the new science stuff, that uses it heavily. Therefore I think you should not "hide" the concept, by sticking a RTG on your craft. But point new playes at it, so I added a note to toggle the panels into the desciption.
  
• While a docking port was not requested, I think it adds versatility to the craft. This way you can dock at space stations, dock an additional tank, dock to a tug or take a specialized probe with you. Also it looks nice
  
• It has an antenna that is extended together with the solar pannels. While there is no use for it in sandbox, it serves to mark the landers dorsal side. This corresponds with the RCS controlls in chase camera mode. I hope that is makes the control of the craft a bit more intuive, should a player decide to dock the CROME to some other craft. The RCS looks like it is all over the place, but it should work rather nicely, spent some time to balance it.
  

---ChemRock Obital/Münar Explorer---

The CROME is a fully functional rocket/lander bundle, that will get you safely to the Mün and back. It's equipped the a docking port, should you want to visit a gas stop on your way to the mün, dock additional fuel or a specialized lander/probe.

Do not forget to extend the solar panels in space.

-Action Groups:-

01 - Toggle solar panels and antenna.

02 - Toggle ladder.

03 - Toggle docking port shield.

-Datasheet:-

Crew capacity: 3

Part count: 145

Mass at liftoff: 247.22t

Max thrust: 4920 kN

TWR at liftoff: 2.04

dV (at/vac): 6532/7948

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Get your CROME HERE!

Edited November 17, 2013 by Xeldrak

[Xeldrak]

On a sidenote: ~19.5 hourse left

[Psycix]

Analysis of stock Kerbal X

I've found that the Kerbal X was not *that* bad overall, with the main problem being that I do not understand what it is supposed to do (nobody goes for a mun orbit, it is land&return or bust)

I have identified one main concept problem that I intend to fix:

It's purpose is unclear. It looks like a munlander, but is incapable of doing a mun return.

I believe it would be better suited to give it that extra nudge and make it capable of a mun return, giving new players access to a easy craft to explore the closest rock in orbit.

I think the upper stage is too simple and relatively ugly. It's TWR is way too high.

The poodle engine is horrid (I avoid poodle engines at all cost), and despite having a massive fuel tank it doesn't perform that great.

The decoupler in between is absolutely ugly. Personally I find it more fun to return with an entire lander as opposed to just a capsule as well.

So we are going to make a new upper stage/lander!

The lifter, however, seems great! I slapped on Kerbal Engineer to check it's performance and it seems hard to tweak. It's TWR is near-perfect throughout the atmosphere: full throttle at all times keeps it close to terminal velocity.

I have found to things to change: I think the fins are redundant, and I do not understand why it's got LV-45T's instead of LV-30T's while the mainsail provides all the thrust vectoring we need. The extra thrust from the 30T's will allow us to carry more fuel, which is handy because I also want slightly more delta-V

Plan of attack

I want to include slightly more overall delta-V, a new lander, and a tweaked, yet roughly identical lifter.

If piloted properly, it should be capable of mun return.

I want to keep the same size rocket, a 2.5m core booster with 1.25m asparagus boosters. Absolutely no 2.5 meter side boosters.

It should look somewhat realistic.

I want to keep the following characteristics:

-A easy to understand display of asparagus staging.

-A near-perfect TWR, flying near terminal velocity through the lower atmosphere at full throttle.

-Easy to use in general, mistakes are very forgivable.

-Plenty of electrical supply, no mistake may result in an unrotatable craft.

Presenting:

the Kerbal Xi

Although initially named XI, the roman number for 11, the kerbal engineers on the job often pronounced it as 'Xi', and after several miscommunications the project leader decided to officially change the name to Xi.

Changes for the new upper stage

As said I thought the upper stage was too plain, and I absolutely hate poodle engines. Performance wise we do not need such a high TWR at all.

-I'm going with quadruple Rockomax 48-7s engines instead, saving weight and increasing the delta-V on this lander. (2.5t -> 0.4t)

-A more aesthetically pleasing design, slightly more fuel.

-Got rid of those huge ugly (and heavy) decouplers! A different design can use a medium or tiny decoupler instead, saving weight as well.

-Replaced the chute with two radials, to allow for a drogue. Atmospheric landing will be much smoother and nicer in general. (Can also be swapped out for a docking port if needed)

-To make landing easy and forgivable, I chose an abundance of landing legs. You can touch this baby down quite hard without breaking anything. Lithobraking!

Changes for the new lifter

-LV-45T's have been swapped out with LV-30T's.

-Larger droptanks to balance the extra thrust, less parts. (2x FL-T800 instead of 3x FL-T400)

-Slightly more fuel in the main stage as well. (1 slim tank)

-Fins are redundant.

-Using standard radial decouplers instead.

-Although the nose cones reduce performance, I think the tiny hit in performance is worth the aesthetics, so let's keep them.

-I added a single strut at the top of each droptank.

Gallery with more detailed descriptions

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Staging:

Conclusion:

The Kerbal Xi offers a Munreturn-capable lander and launcher. It is designed to be easy to use and foolproof.

Reaching orbit is a piece of cake, if you do a gravity turn (to any angle) after the last pair drops, stop burning once apo reaches the desired height, and then burn prograde to raise periapsis, nothing can go wrong, even if you did it wrong.

The upper stage is very easy to use and the large amount of landing legs can take a lithobrake, so that first-time Munlander pilots won't have any problems putting it down.

It's still got all advantages of the old Kerbal X, featuring a very clean and easy to understand asparagus layout (everything is perfectly aligned due to editorextensions)

Upon returning home, you can choose to keep the service module with the landing legs attached, or drop it, and both will work. The addition of a drogue makes parachute deployment a very gentle operation.

The partcount raised to 110, but that includes launch clamps and a few struts that the Kerbal X didn't have.

It is easy to understand, and easy to modify. For example, one can easily replace the drogue chute with a docking port, or add some science equipment to the lander, as the lower stages can carry slightly more payload than it is currently loaded with to LKO.

>CRAFT FILE HERE<

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

Edited November 16, 2013 by Psycix

[Kasuha]

It's purpose is unclear. It looks like a munlander, but is incapable of doing a mun return.

Its purpose is pretty clear to me: to give newbies to the game something to play with and something that can reach orbit. It's a Minmus land&return craft, too. If you make it strong enough to reach and return from Mun, you make it strong enough to reach Duna or Eve without return at the same time. And the cycle repeats.

Another thing is, even if you are able to land on Mun with it and return, a newbie will not. I'm taking it from my own experience as I was on Minmus with Kerbal X in my early KSP days and of course I ran out of fuel when going home. That wouldn't happen to me today. So there. Kerbal X can go to orbit and return and if you want you can land it on landing legs from there. That's what a generic newbie should be able to do with it.

[sploden]

Name: Kerbal X improved 02

Parts: 78

Delta V (calculated in the VAB):

Atmosphere: 7,378

Vacuum: 8,644

VAB Description text:

The Kerbal X is capable of achieving orbit around Kerbin, transferring to and landing on the Mün or Minmus, and returning to Kerbin.

Action groups:

1. Toggle Ladder

2. SCIENCE!

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Innovations:

1. Stage 2 engine configuration cuts down on weight and height, and is shrouded by the decoupler.

2. Liquid booster placement in front and back rather than on the sides prevents colliding with decoupled boosters while gravity-turning.

Exclusions:

1. Large science modules were not included; they are too ugly and bulky.

2. RCS was not included. I did not deem it as necessary; the craft is easily maneuverable without, and docking is not part of this challenge.

3. I also did not include an escape tower. I feel that this is a complication that is not necessary. The craft is very simple and reliable, and a noob probably wouldn't know how to use an abort system anyways.

Edited November 17, 2013 by sploden

[breakthrough]

There is a lot of competition here, but I already spent all night testing a rocket that is useless to my Duna mission so oh well. I also realize that another entry has an extremely similar name. Anyway here is the Kerbal X Revision 1A.

The more efficient Aerospike boosters allow a landing and return from the Mun, but only barely. A young grasshopper trying to do science would have to make something a little bigger and better, which I think is a good way to learn.

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78 parts

6100 atmosphere Delta-v

7600 vacuum Delta-v

Kerbal_X_Revision_1A.craft

When I tested the stock Kerbal X it actually taught me that 2-way symmetry on OX-STAT panels will produce power at all angles, I thought for sure that it would need 3-way symmetry. I retained the solar panel arrangement for that reason. I put the landing legs out on Tail Fins because its very little weight and makes landing easier, something I didn't think to do until over 100 hours into my first career mode game. While it wasn't intentional, I also like how this craft has no struts at all.

[Whirligig Girl]

I certainly was finding it hard to beat the Kerbal Xi, but without further ado:

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/orbiter-x-better-stock-crafts/

A cousin of the Kerbal X, and the brother of the lander X, the Orbiter X is a fully functional orbital spacecraft that works even better than advertized here.

This beginner rocket is fully capable of surviving noob-related blunders such as steep ascent profiles and crashing*.

The Orbiter X is fitted with a Launch Escape System, just press the abort key and be launched away from impending doom!**.

When you are done flying all around Kerbin, try the Lander X, so you can fly all around the Mun or Minmus!

*May not actually save noobs from crashing.

** Warranty on Launch Escape System void if used while pointed towards the ground.

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Lander X sold separately.

[Spartwo]

Spartwo - CTV 70

Wut? LOLOL

[Xeldrak]

Wut? LOLOL

lol, sorry, thats the 70 from "70 parts" in your post. Happens if you add several people at once.

[Spartwo]

No problem I just wanted to point it out before voting starts.

[Andrew Hansen]

Just wondering... how important is the name of your ship? I wasn't really thinking when I named mine. Never usually do. I hope it's not too important! It can be annoying to the OP if suddenly everybody changes the name of their ships, so I'll leave it.

I have a feeling the name isn't too important.

[Xeldrak]

Nope, I don't think the name is very important, although I personally like to have a nice, unique name. So, I usually come up with some absurd acronym

Edited November 17, 2013 by Xeldrak

[kzauner]

Oh. Saw this very late (before going to bed) - so here a 'quick' contribution. The 'KerbalEX'. Here she is standing on the launchpad:

About the ship: Kept it easy, has 120 tonnes. Is relatively easy to steer and overengineered. I kept the ascendstage a little bit short, for debris-avoidance; the transferstage has enough juice. Even with sloppy ascends there should be around 400m/s dv left after Transmunar injection burn to a FRT for mün. The Lander itself has enough dv for circularisation- and deorbit burn (and the landing itself). I deliberately jettisoned the by far not empty transferstage after TMI-Burn to test this.

The Lander itself is 2-staged. So if one is not pumping around fuel, no Kerbals should get stuck on mün because there is no fuel for return. If the Kerbals run out of gas during descend - just stage for aborting the landing (deliberately no landing gear on ascend&return stage).

Back at Kerbin spplashdown should be no problem at all, as there a 2 chutes - one drag and 2 mains (in 2 stages). Craft file as follows:

KerbalEX.craft.

[Carl]

Ok updated my entries craft file, still working on the photo, postimage is giving my net connection fits atm for some reason.

[Xeldrak]

About 1.5 hours left before submissions are closed!

[British_Rover]

here is my craft file but I wont be able to post pictures till tonight

BCSX.craft - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1b53G-UMsskMWdPb0RMMUVCWlU/edit?usp=sharing

has enough to get to mun and return. separate ascent stage for leaving mun. to complete mun landing transfer fuel from ascent stage to landing stage. panels bound to light button. gear and ladders bound together.

sorry on phone

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Edited November 17, 2013 by British_Rover

[Xeldrak]

Mh, I'm really sorry - but you need a picture to enter the contest and submissions will close in about 30 minutes.

[Nao]

About 1.5 hours left before submissions are closed!

Hey, if it's not too late i would like to change the name of my craft (Kerbal EX or KEX) to HexaDragon. We already have too much "Kerbal"s ,and kzauner picked KerbalEX ... so i want to avoid confusion. And HexaDragon fits better my six tank symmetry. (It was the name of a mob from my favorite FinalFantasy game)

I'll update my post in a moment (including new link to craft file, as somehow in the current some parts got unblinded from control groups).

Also I'd like to thank you for the challenges, definitely you put a lot of work to them.

[Xeldrak]

Your name has been changed, Nao.

And all submissions are closed.

Now, please give me some time and listen to some smooth jazz.

[zekes]

I'm confused why everyone tells me I missied the point of this challenge, when you said that the Saturn V was one of the ships to take inspiration from?

[Rhomphaia]

I'm confused why everyone tells me I missied the point of this challenge, when you said that the Saturn V was one of the ships to take inspiration from?

Maybe they are looking at your first page post rather than your entry.